THE TOAD AS AN ENTOMOLOGIST. 829 
gelatine which have an active swarming motion when placed in 
water, and which he calls spermatia; these he says will not ger- 
minate, but I advise you to try for yourself. These bodies are 
usually referred to the genus Cytispora or Nzemaspora, belong- 
ing to a totally different order of Fungi, the Spheronemei of the 
Coniomycetes. You will probably also find various moulds ap- 
pearing on the sticks, some of which are very curious, and have 
received very long and hard names, and your experience will differ 
from mine if you do not find a number of forms which you will not 
expect and which will puzzle you very much. Note and draw them 
all, and combine your results in a paper for the Narurauisr, which 
shall give the life history of the particular Hypoxylon, Diatrype, 
Valsa or Spheria, with which you have experimented 
The field is very wide, and the experiments of one man must be 
checked by those of another to get our knowledge of the subject 
established upon a satisfactory basis. 
I feel sure that any one who gets fairly started in this field of 
investigation will find it infinitely more amusing, interesting and 
satisfactory than looking at specimens purchased ready mounted 
and labelled. 
There is another, and the usual mode of studying this subject, 
namely, the collecting all the specimens you can get and having 
ascertained their specific names put them in an herbarium. This 
kind of work very few can have the necessary facilities for doing, 
for it is absolutely necessary to have access to authentic speci- 
mens and good libraries to obtain valuable and satisfactory re- 
sults. It is work which must be done by somebody, but it in- 
volves a good deal of uninteresting labor, and is not at present so 
desirable as the mode of investigation which I have indicated. 
THE TOAD AS AN ENTOMOLOGIST. 
BY A. S. RITCHIE. 
Tue principal object of the following notes on the toad as a col- 
lector of beetles, is to show how useful some of the lower animals 
are to man in his search after knowledge. Before entering on the 
